Upcoming trips

May 2 to May 14 London vacation. We will be staying in the President Hotel, 56 - 60 Guildford Street, Russell Square, London, WC1N 1DB. Telephone : 020 7388 4443. Hope to see you all then.

theatre and Concerrts

February 20. At Christine’s prompting, and, offer to go to the box office for Family Circle tickets, we went to see the Met’s production of Parsifal–from 6.00 to 11.30! It is a modern production for the new generation of opera-goers (the ones that hoot and holler at slightest excuse to the detriment of all others’ listening concentration). Modern dress clashes horribly with the ancient myth of the story line, and state-of-the art lighting and staging effects enlighten and intrigue the semi gloom in which the action(?) of all three acts take place. I was pleasantly impressed with the singing cast and thought that it compared favorably with the greats of my younger days.

The new conductor was enthusiastically welcomed (The Levine era is now forgotten completely) but I thought the sound he produced from the orchestra did not quite evoke the agonizing pathos that I remembered.

February 21. Saw “Amy and the Orphans” at The Roundabout Theatre. It is a story of parents’ tussle with the agony of caring for a child with Down syndrome and the adult siblings’ efforts to atone for their parents’ weakness. Wonderfully convincing acting all round and written with great humour to counter the guilt dialalogue of the characters.

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AMNH has opened its state-of-the-art exhibit on the subject of the extinct flying reptiles, pterosaurs. Their coming and going is told mainly in the labels to the relatively few fossils that have been found but there are two mini film theatres and microscopes to help explain it all. Best of all, for kids of all ages, there are four giant interactive screens where you get to fly your own pterosaur! You can make him flap or glide as you will and even make him dive for fish. Or, (On another screen) you can do the flapping and gliding and the screen animal will follow your movements! Careful! though. Some of them had wing spans of 30 feet or more and the largest had a wing bone bigger than an elephant’s ankle: